Archos Gmini 400 User manual

1

• MPEG-4 Video Player

• MP3 & WMA Music Player

• Photo Viewer

• USB 2.0 Hard Disk

• Game player

User Manual for ARCHOS Gmini™ 400

Version 1.1

English Language User Manual

Please visit our website to download the most recent manual and software for this product.

Gmini™

400

Pocket Music / Photo / Games / Video

2
Table of Contents
1  INTRO - Ports, Buttons and Connections   6
2  INTRO - First Time Usage 
  8
2.1  Plugging in the AC Adapter  8
2.2  Turning on the Gmini 400  8
2.3  Shutting off the Gmini 400 and Battery saving features  8
2.4  Changing the Language  9
2.5  Foreign Character Sets  9
2.6  Charging the Batteries   9
2.7  Caring for the Gmini 400  10
2.8  Hardware Reset  10
3  MUSIC - Playing Music Files   11
3.1  Button Control  11
3.2  Playing Through your Stereo System  12
3.3  Artist, Album, Title … ID3 Tags  13
3.4  The ARCLibrary (Browsing by Album, Artist, or Song name)  13
3.5  Setting a Bookmark  14
3.6  The Resume Function  15
4  MUSIC - Playlists   16
4.1  Playing a Playlist  16
4.
2  Creating a Playlist  17
4.3
  Saving a Playlist  17
4.4
  Adding songs to a Playlist while listening to Music  18
5  MUSIC - Recording Music  19
5.1  Cable Connections for Audio Recording  19
5.2  Recording Procedure  20
Microphone
 
21
Analog Line-In
 
21
Incremental Recording
 
21
5.3  Where is the Recording Saved?  21
5.4  Audio Editing  22
6  MUSIC - Using Windows
®
 Media Player 9   24
6.1   Installing Windows Media Player 9  24
6.2  Installing the WMP9 Service Provider Plug-in  24
6.3  Copying Music to your Gmini 400  25
6.4  Copy Protected Music Downloads  25
7  MUSIC - Using iTunes™ with your Gmini 400  26
8  GAMES - Playing Mophun
® 
games  27
8.1  Downloading Games  27
Copy to Gmini 400 root
 
27
8.2  Playing a Game  28

3
9  VIDEO - Playing Video   29
9.1  Setting a Bookmark  30
9.2  The Resume Function  30
9.3  Display Format Settings  31
9.4  Playing Video Files from the Internet  31
10  VIDEO - Creating MPEG4 video files with your computer  32
How to create an MPEG-4 video file
 
32
PC Tools 
 
32
Macintosh Users 
 
32
10.1  Installing the PC Software  33
DivX™ Codec
 
33
Virtual Dub™
 
33
MPG4 Translator
 
33
MP3 Sound Codec
 
34
10.2  Using MPG4 Translator  35
Select Source & Destination Files
 
35
Change Settings
 
35
Target & Priority
 
36
Start
 
36
11  PHOTO - Viewing Photos  37
11.1  Viewing Photos  37
Magnifying Photos
 
38
11.2  Viewing a slideshow  38
11.3  Transferring photos to your Gmini 400  39
12  BROWSER - Using the Browser  41
12.1  Navigating the Directory Structure  41
12.2  Navigating the Directory Structure  42
File Operations
 
42
Folder Operations
 
42
Copying and Moving Files and Folders
 
43
12.3  Using the Virtual Keyboard  44
13  Connecting/Disconnecting the Gmini 400 to/from your PC  45
13.1  Connecting the Gmini 400  45
Windows
®
 ME, 2000, XP (Home/professional)
 
45
Macintosh™ OS 9.X 
 
46
Macintosh™ OS X
 
46
Macintosh™ OS X (10.2 Jaguar and 10.3 Panther)
 
46
13.2  Disconnecting the Gmini 400 from your Computer  46
Windows
®
 
 
47
Macintosh
®
 
48
14  SETTINGS  49
14.1  Sound Settings  49
14.2
  Play Mode Settings  50
14.3
  Clock Settings  52
14.4
  Display Settings  52
14.5
  Power Settings  54
14.6
  System Settings  55

4
15  Updating the Gmini 400 Firmware Operating System (OS)  56
Download the Update_Gmini400.AOS file
 
56
Read the History.txt File
 
56
Copy to 
Gmini 400 root and Update
 
56
16  Technical Support  58
17  Troubleshooting  60
17.1  USB Connection issues  60
17.2  Charging and Power issues  61
17.3  Gmini 400 locks up (freezes operation) or Stops  61
17.4  The Computer locks-up (freezes operation) or Stops  62
17.5  File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning  62
Windows
®
 98SE & ME Running Scan-Disk (Error Checking)
 
63
Windows
®
 XP & 2000 Running Check Disk Utility (ChkDsk) 
 
64
18  Technical Specifications  65
19  Legal  66

5

Dear Customer,

ARCHOS thanks you for your choice of this exciting Gmini 400 product.

With this beautiful device in your pocket, you can enjoy digital music,

digital photos, games, or digital video anytime and anywhere. We are

sure that your Gmini 400 will give you years of listening and viewing

enjoyment. Of course you can always use it as a regular portable hard

disk too for all your personal computer ﬁles.

This guide will explain to you the functions of the Gmini 400. Our

engineers have packed this product with many functions and capabilities.

The better you know how to use it, the more enjoyment you will get from

it. Remember, with the Gmini 400, you can…

• Listen to MP3, WMA, or WAV music ﬁles

• Play a variety of 2D and 3D Mophun

®

video games

• Play MPEG-4 video ﬁles on the built-in screen, or to a television or video

projector

• View digital photos and make personalized slide shows

•

Record music ﬁles directly into digital format from your hi-ﬁ without a computer

• Use it as a voice recorder with its built-in microphone

•

Store .DOC, .PDF, or any type of data ﬁle – it’s a portable hard drive too!

• Create music Playlists

•

Copy Pictures or data from CompactFlash™ cards directly to the Gmini

400 (may require a freely available plug-in from the Archos website).

We wish you many years of enjoyment from your Gmini 400 product.

Please do register your product at our website www.archos.com/

register/products.html to ensure that you get access to our help line

and to be informed of free software updates for your product.

Wishing you the best music, photo, gaming, and video experience,

The ARCHOS TEAM

6

a Hard disk activity indicator (red)

b On indicator (green)

c Battery charger indicator (green) – blinks when the battery is fully charged

d On/Enter/Play/Go ► – Hold for 3 seconds to turn on the Gmini 400

e Move UP (also increases volume during media playback)

f Move DOWN (also decreases volume during media playback)

g Move LEFT (also plays previous song or fast reverse through a song or video)

h Move RIGHT (also plays next song or fast forward through a song or video)

i Game Control 1 (Function depends on game) [acts as Enter/Play when not

in game mode]

j Game Control 2 (Function depends on game) [acts as Escape/Stop when

not in game mode]

k Escape/Stop/Go back/Off - Hold for 3 seconds to turn off device

l F1 command or function

m F2 command or function

n F3 command or function

o Function button F1 – activates the on-screen function or command above it (l)

p Function button F2 – activates the on-screen function or command above it (m)

Long press to switch display between built in screen and external TV

q Function button F3 – activates the on-screen function or command above it (n)

1

INTRO - Ports, Buttons and Connections

7

a Multiconnect adapter – allows for an analog audio input (Line In)

b Multi-connect jack – for headphones, AV cable, or FM Remote control

(optional accessory)

c Microphone – for making digital voice recordings

d CompactFlash™ slot – Type I compatible

e USB 2.0 port (USB 1.1 compatible) to connect the Gmini 400 to your computer

f Power Connector (Use only the supplied Archos power charger/adapter)

8

Please take the time to read though this manual. There are many

things that this device can do that you may not be aware of.

2.1 Plugging in the AC Adapter

• Use only the included ARCHOS charger/adapter.

•

Before using for the ﬁrst time, charge the batteries completely.

• You may use the Archos Gmini 400 while its battery is charging, but it

will then take longer before the battery is completely charged.

2.2 Turning on the Gmini 400

•

Hold the PLAY/ON button

►

for 4 seconds. The green “On”

indicator light will turn on. Be patient, it will take a few seconds for the

operating system to boot up.

•

If the unit shuts off after holding the ON button for several seconds, plug

in the Archos adapter/charger to make sure the batteries get charged.

2.3 Shutting off the Gmini 400 and Battery saving features

To shut off the unit, press and hold the STOP/ESC/OFF button for 3 seconds.

In the Power menu [Setup



Power: Battery Operation]

there is a Power Off parameter. It is factory set to 2

minutes. Thus, if your Gmini 400 is idle for 2 minutes, it

will shut off. This setting can be changed from one to nine

minutes or to ‘never’.

In the Power menu [Setup



Power: Battery Operation]

there is a Backlight Off parameter to save battery power

(the lighting of the screen consumes a lot of the battery

power). It is factory set to 30 seconds. That is, if there are

no buttons pressed, the screen will shut off in order to save battery life.

To turn the screen back on, just click once on any button. See section 14.5

for a complete explanation.

2

INTRO - First Time Usage

9

2.4 Changing the Language

The Gmini 400 interface can be set to English (default), French, German

or Spanish.

• To change the language, move the cursor to Setup and then

click PLAY/ENTER

►.

•

Then move with the joystick to Display and click PLAY/ENTER

►

.

• Highlight the Language parameter.

• Use the Right or Left button to choose the desired language.

• Choose French, German, Spanish or English.

• The language displayed will change immediately.

• Click on the STOP/ESC button to exit this screen.

2.5 Foreign Character Sets

You have the possibility to display your ﬁle names, folder names, and

MP3 ID3 tags in various character sets (ex: Korean, Japanese, Simpliﬁed

Chinese, etc.). You can ﬁnd the language ﬁles CodePage_name.4FZ

in the font folder under /Data on the Gmini 400 hard disk or on the

Archos website under the heading Software. If, for example, you would

like to have the Korean language display, then you would copy the ﬁle

CP949.4FZ into the folder /system on the Gmini 400 and shut down and

restart the Gmini 400. File names, folder names, and ID3 tags written

using the Microsoft

®

codepage for the language will now be displayed in

that character set. Only one .4FZ can be used at a time, thus you should

only put one .4FZ ﬁle into the /system folder. When an .4FZ language ﬁle

is used, the interface language will be set to English.

2.6 Charging the Batteries

Use ONLY an Archos charger/adapter that is speciﬁed for the Gmini

400. Other chargers or adapters may damage the Gmini 400. The green

CHARGE indicator lights up to indicate that the external adapter is

connected. The batteries will charge automatically when the AC adapter/

charger is plugged in. Once the batteries are fully charged, this light

will blink, indicating that you can disconnect the charger/adapter. Once

charged, you can get up to 10 hours* of MP3 music playback time and

up to 5 hours* of AVI video playback time (on the built-in screen) from

10

the batteries. The Gmini 400 is made with integrated batteries which are

designed to last for the life of the Gmini 400. This means that you will

not have to change them. If, in the exceptional case, the batteries need

changing, this should only be done by an Archos technician.

* depending on how you use it (start/stop/writing, etc.)

2.7 Caring for the Gmini 400

The Archos Gmini 400 is an electronic product that needs to be treated

with more care than typical consumer electronic products.

• Do not subject it to shock.

• Do not subject it to heat. Keep it ventilated (especially when connected

to a computer).

• Keep the Gmini 400 away from water and excessively humid areas.

• Keep the Gmini 400 away from high electromagnetic ﬁelds.

• Keep any connected cords to the Gmini 400 neatly arranged. This light

product could fall if a cord is accidentally pulled by a child.

• Do not open up the Gmini 400. There are no user serviceable parts

inside. Opening will void your warranty.

2.8 Hardware Reset

In the event that your Gmini 400 freezes operation (due to electrostatic

phenomena for example), you can actuate a hardware reset by holding

down on the STOP/ESC button for 10 seconds. In normal operation, the

STOP/ESC button will shut down the Gmini 400 after being held down for

3 seconds.

11

When you click on this icon in the main screen, you will be

sent directly to the Music folder. Use the direction buttons

to highlight one of the factory installed music selections and

then Click on PLAY ►. If you hear nothing at ﬁ rst, make sure

you have adjusted the volume control on the headphone cord. By clicking

on the Music icon in the main menu screen, you will enter into a ‘music

only’ mode. Other playable ﬁ le types that may be in this folder are only

listed if you enter the folder via the Browser.

Current Directory Play Order Play Mode: One Directory Status: Playing Volume (maximum:31)

Artist* or parent folder

Album* or current folder

Song title* or ﬁ le name

Next track to be played

Relative location in the track

Song elapsed time

Song time remaining

Song Length

Battery level (full)

Time of Day

File format and rec info

*APIC Album picture

Volume level meters

Go to setup options Show Music Options Browse the hard disk for other tracks

*If the MP3 ﬁ le contains these ID3 tag data

3.1 Button Control

Play/pause/resume song Increase the Volume

Click once: Play the previous song

in the folder or playlist (during ﬁ rst

5 seconds of song) otherwise go to

the beginning of the song.

Hold: Fast reverse

through the song.

Click once: Play the next song

in the folder or playlist.

Hold: Fast forward through the

song.

Stop Song Decrease the Volume

3

MUSIC - Playing Music Files

12

To lock the Gmini 400 buttons, press and hold

the left function button for three seconds. The

Gmini 400 will display the message “Buttons

locked!” on the bottom of the screen. Press this

again for three seconds to unlock the buttons.

What the Icons indicate

Status Play Order Play Mode

Stopped

- no icon -

Play once

See section 14.2

Blinks while playing

a track

Repeat playing

Current track is

paused

Shufﬂ e (random)

track selection

Recording a track Playing a playlist

3.2 Playing Through your Stereo System

On your HiFi there are two RCA type

connectors that are labeled Aux in, CD

in, or Line-in. Typically they are color

coded white and red for left and right

stereo channels respectively. Just take the

included A/V cable and plug it into the

Gmini 400 headphone jack. Plug the red

and white connectors into the Aux in,

CD in, or line-in of your stereo system.

Do not plug the yellow (video) connector

into anything. On the front of your stereo,

select the corresponding auxiliary input

or CD input that you plugged into on the back of your HiFi system. Press

Play and then adjust the Gmini 400 volume (UP/DOWN buttons) in order

to supply your stereo system with a signal that is neither too weak nor

too strong. If the sound is distorted, you will need to reduce the Gmini

400’s volume.

13

3.3 Artist, Album, Title … ID3 Tags

ID3 Tags are information about the recording

which found inside of an MP3 music ﬁle. When

someone creates an MP3 music ﬁle, he or she

has the option of adding information to it. This

information can include, among other things, the

name of the artist (Wes Burden), the album name

(Brave New World), the title of the song (Mirror), and a small image of

the album cover (only jpeg images not progressive jpeg). If these data

are present, the Gmini 400 will display them on the screen when it plays

the ﬁle. If they are not present, then the Gmini 400 will display in order,

the name of the parent folder, the name of the current folder, and then

the name of the ﬁle.

As of the writing of this manual, there are two versions of ID3 tags that

are ﬁrmly established standards, ID3 version 1 and ID3 version 2. Your

Gmini 400 can read either version of tags, and display the information. If

both sets of tags have information, the data from the ID3 version 2 tag

will be displayed. Other tag information may include year and genre of

music. These other tag data are not displayed by the Gmini 400, but are

used to index your music in the ARCLibrary (see next section). WMA ﬁles

also have tags and these are displayed as well when the ﬁle is played.

3.4 The ARCLibrary (Browsing by Album, Artist, or Song name)

The ARCLibrary is a system for choosing

your music by its characteristics. It can

be turned On or Off in the settings

from Setup > Playmode. As shown

in this screen capture, you can select

your music by Artist, Album, Song Title,

Genre, or Year. MP3 and WMA music

ﬁles have internal data tags to hold

information about the song. For MP3

ﬁles, these are known as ID3 tags. Not

all MP3 ﬁles have all this information ﬁlled in. If you purchase a song from

a music download service, the songs will have this information. If you

have an MP3 or WMA ﬁle without this tag information, then you can add

or change it by going to the properties of the ﬁle in Windows

®

Explorer.

Once you re-index the ARCLibrary, you will have access to this track

14

from the ARCLibrary. Audio ﬁles created

with the microphone will be indexed as

Artist = ARCHOS and Album = Audio

Recording. The ARCLibrary indexes all

the music and playlists that it ﬁnds in

the folders Music and Playlists on

your Gmini 400’s hard drive, by using

the tag information in each song. When

you transfer music to your Gmini 400

from your computer, it goes directly to the Gmini 400 hard disk without

the ARCLibrary knowing about the new song. Thus, in order for your new

songs to be indexed into the ARCLibrary, you must update it with the

Update button as shown here in the Setup > Playmode screen. You

have the following options to set the ARCLibrary.

Off – From the Music icon, you will just browse music ﬁles in the folder Music

.

On – You can browse music by its characteristics (ID3 tags) but you will

have to manually update the ARCLibrary each time you add new music

from your computer to your Gmini 400.

Automatic – The ARCLibrary will be set to On and it will automatically

update the library each time it notices that you have disconnected from a

computer. A message screen will appear indicating that it is updating the

ARCLibrary contents.

3.5 Setting a Bookmark

If you are listening to a song, or perhaps a long recording, and

would like to place a bookmark in it in order to pick up from

this point at another time, you can use the Bookmark function.

You simply click on the center function button labeled Options,

then choose Set Bookmark. This will set a

bookmark in the audio ﬁle at the current

position. You can only set one bookmark

per ﬁle. When you look at the ﬁle in your

browser, it will have a yellow check mark

on its icon indicating that this ﬁle has a

bookmark set within it. You can have a

maximum of 16 ﬁles bookmarked. Setting

more bookmarks will then start to erase

15

the oldest bookmarks. The next time you play the audio ﬁle, you will be

presented with three options:

Resume: Start playing from the bookmarked position.

Ignore: Keep the bookmark but start playing from the very beginning.

Clear: Clear the bookmark from this ﬁle and start playing from the

very beginning.

3.6 The Resume Function

When you turn on your Gmini 400 you will sometimes notice

that the icon which is highlighted on the main screen is not the

Browser but rather the Resume icon. This icon is highlighted when

the Gmini 400 can resume the last played audio or video ﬁle.

16

4

MUSIC - Playlists

A Playlist is a list of songs that the Gmini 400 will

automatically play one after the other. The Gmini

400 can load one playlist at a time into its internal

memory. You can create new playlists, add or delete

songs from a playlist, or Save a playlist as a ﬁ le (ﬁ le

type .m3u) to be used another time. There is no

limit to the number of playlists you can save on the

Gmini 400 hard disk. Playlists are indicated by a special list icon (circled

icon to the left).

4.1 Playing a Playlist

To play a Playlist, you simply scroll to the

Playlist, such as ‘Jazz Music’ shown to the

left, and click on PLAY

►

. The list of songs

will be loaded into the internal memory of

the Gmini 400 and then be displayed in a

separate panel.

Click on PLAY

►

and the songs will

be played in the order shown. To

shufﬂ e the music entries in a random

order, you can click on Playlist (F1),

then choose Shufﬂ e. You can open

a Playlist ﬁ le

(Playlistname.m3u)

on

your computer with a text editor such

as Notepad, and you will see that it is merely a list of ﬁ les to be played

along with the hard disk path to ﬁ nd them. If you delete a Playlist from

your Gmini 400, you are only deleting the list and not the music itself.

Example of the contents of the .m3u Playlist ﬁ le ‘Jazz Music’.

17

4.2 Creating a Playlist

To create a Playlist, press the RIGHT

button while you are in the Music

browser. A second window will open

on the right side to display the Playlist

contents. You can now start adding

songs to the current Playlist. In the left

window, search for the songs you would

like to add to your Playlist. Once the song

is highlighted, click on the Add function

button to add it to the Playlist. The song will be added to the Playlist and a

small mark next to the music icon will be made to indicate that it is in the

Playlist. Continue searching and adding songs in this manner until you are

satisﬁ ed. You can also click the Add or Insert button when highlighting

a folder. All the contents of the folder and its subfolders will be added or

inserted into the current playlist.

You can jump back and forth between the browser and the playlist by

clicking on the LEFT and RIGHT buttons. A Playlist can have a maximum

of 5000 songs. We recommend that you save your Playlists.

4.3 Saving a Playlist

It is recommended that each time you

create a Playlist, you save it to a separate

folder called

Playlists

. These lists take

very little space on your hard disk and

if well named, give you easy access to

your favorite songs. Go to the Playlist

by selecting Music from the main menu

and then click on the RIGHT button.

You will then see the list of songs in the

current Playlist. Click the function button F1 then choose Save.

ATTENTION: Make sure that your left window is the Playlists folder,

because the open window on the left is the location the Gmini 400 will be

saving your Playlist to.

Save – Saves the current playlist to the folder open in the left window. The

* next to the playlist name indicates that this playlist has not been saved.

18

Close – Closes the windows and returns to the main menu screen.

Rename – Renames the current playlist.

Shufﬂe

– Randomly shufﬂes the order of the songs in the current playlist.

Clear – Clears the contents of the current playlist.

Button Move – Allows you to change the place in the list of the highlighted

song. Click on

Move and then click on UP or DOWN to move the song up

or down the list. Click OK when ﬁnished.

Button Delete – Will delete the highlighted song from the Playlist. It will

not delete the actual song itself from your hard disk, just from the current

Playlist.

Important: Once you save a Playlist it is important that you do not move or rename the

actual MP3 ﬁles as the Playlist searches in the original ﬁle location. If you need to move your

MP3 ﬁles to a different folder, you’ll have to recreate your Playlist.

4.4 Adding songs to a Playlist while listening to Music

This can only be done if you have entered your Music folder via the Music

icon and not by the general browser. To add the song you are listening

to or any other song to the current Playlist, do the following:

• While playing a song, click on Options and choose Edit

Playlist. A browser window and the Playlist will open.

• Click on the LEFT button to go to the hard disk browser

window.

• Select the song or folder of songs to add, then click the

button Add.

• Click ESC to return to the playing screen.

19

With the Gmini 400 series, you do not need a computer to create digital

music ﬁles. It is capable of recording from the built-in microphone or

an analog line source (ex: HiFi system, Boombox, CD Player, etc) into a

standard Windows

®

WAV format, either PCM (uncompressed) or ADPCM

(compressed).

5.1 Cable Connections for Audio Recording

Plug the multi-connect adapter into the Gmini 400 and then plug the

included AV cable into the side marked Line-In as shown here. Connect

the Red (Right) and White (Left) connectors to the audio output of your

Hiﬁ or other audio device that you are recording from. Do not plug the

yellow connector to anything.

To the outputs of your audio

device.

5

MUSIC - Recording Music

20

5.2 Recording Procedure

Before the actual audio recording begins, there is a pre-recording screen

which will allow you to adjust your recording settings.

1. From the home screen, select Audio-

Corder then click on ENTER/GO

►

.

2. In the pre-recording screen, adjust

the recording level* by clicking on

the LEFT and RIGHT buttons. Click on

the F3 Start button to start recording.

Attention, the ﬁrst time recording you

should adjust your

Settings.

3. Click on Settings to reveal the re-

cording parameters screen as shown

above. Be sure to set the correct

Source. You will hear silence during

recording and playback if the incorrect

source is chosen.

4. Once you have clicked on the Start

button, you can pause the recording by

clicking the same function button (now

labelled

Pause), or stop the recording

by clicking on the STOP/ESC button.

* (Analog recordings only) You should try some test recordings before deciding on which

recording level gives the best sound quality. Don’t be tricked by the volume of the

headphones which can be adjusted independently with the UP and DOWN buttons.

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